Deserted and Chastised Christian

In this part of the sermon: Martin reads Psalm 38 aloud and then invites the class to describe the psalmist's condition, eliciting responses that highlight suffering, penitence, persecution, and combined…

Pete uses the analogy of Christian going uphill difficulty in Pilgrim's Progress to describe David's condition, highlighting his awareness of sin, solitude, and pursuit of recovery.

So Pete is taking an analogy out of Pilgrim's Progress, and he's like Christian, going uphill difficulty. He knows he's in that posture because of his sin. He's alone, but he's seeking the way of recovery and back into the place of full obedience to God. Someone else want to make a stab at it? All right, Chet? All right, he seems to be in a condition of combined physical and spiritual distress. Good. Anyone else?

9:05 - 10:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: our justification and adoption are irreversible, non-improvable conditions or states of acceptance before God in the court of heaven. However, in the realm of our experience as the children of God...that is not an unchan…

Martin contrasts David's sickness, directly related to God's anger, with Job's suffering (not directly related to sin) and the Corinthians' sickness (directly related to sin), to illustrate that not all sickness is caused by sin, but David's was.

So he is under the hand of God in a context of divine displeasure and anger and chastisement. And as a result of it, and this brings in some of the strands that others of you have mentioned, he was physically sick. Verse 3, there is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. Now here is a case where a man's sickness was directly related to the anger and the chastisement of God. Now not all sickness is thus related, a la Job. But in this case it was, a la the Corinthians, for this cause. Many are weak and sickly among you, and not a few sleep. So here was a case where he was consciou...

13:55 - 14:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: our justification and adoption are irreversible, non-improvable conditions or states of acceptance before God in the court of heaven. However, in the realm of our experience as the children of God...that is not an unchan…

Martin describes David's emotional state by saying 'this guy had a terrible case of depression,' imagining him unable to smile from morning till night, to vividly portray his deep sorrow.

go mourning all the day long. We'd say this guy had a terrible case of depression. I mean, you'd watch him from the time his feet hit the floor in the morning till the time he went to bed and you couldn't find a crack of a smile on his face from 6 to 10 o'clock at night. I go mourning all the day long.

15:43 - 16:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Pour out your heart transparently and fully, without reservation, the full spectrum of the state of your soul before God.

Martin uses the analogy of parents' feelings when their children finally confess something they've been holding back, to explain why God delights in His children pouring out their hearts to Him, not for information but for communion.

Now, you who are parents, how do you feel when your children have carried something in their hearts perhaps for weeks or months, and suddenly, a given situation, a combination of circumstances, the plug is pulled and they finally tell you. And you know they've been carrying something that has been like a festering sore to change the imagery, like a sour polluted pond in their hearts. What does it do to you when they finally tell you? And you say to them, why didn't you tell me this of your father?

46:16 - 46:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Continue to pursue holiness and universal obedience in your general lifestyle, even when you receive no 'lollipop of a good feeling' for doing what is good.

Martin uses the metaphor of a 'lollipop of a good feeling' to critique believers who only obey when they feel joy, arguing that obedience is a duty regardless of emotional state.

They that render evil for good are adversaries unto me because, present tense, I, I follow the thing that is good. Now, there's another crucial area. There are many of God's people, especially who've been conditioned for instant gratification and to live by their feelings. The moment they get no joy in following the way of righteousness, they give up and say, if God doesn't give me the lollipop of a good feeling, I'm not going to do what's good. God's under no obligations to give you lollipops when you tie your shoes in the morning. It's your duty to tie your shoes whether God gives you lollip...

49:47 - 50:49 Read in full sermon